Microsoft Windows 7 Launched in India, Retail Sales Delayed

Finally the counddown is over as Microsoft today announced the availability of its much-awaited operating system, Windows 7 for retail markets in India. Delivering its promise, Microsoft released its new OS as scheduled, offering a more reliable, responsive as well as more simplified PC for better consumer experience. Currently, Windows 7 is available with more than 45,000 retailers around the world and in India. In the next 30 days, all 16 OEMs will bring in more than 100 different Windows 7 PCs. Some manufacturers like Dell have already released PCs with Windows 7 at retail stores across the country.

While announcing the launch of Windows 7, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India said

Proactive engagement and feedback thereof with partners and consumers was fundamental to the development of Windows 7. It has helped deliver what is the highest quality OS in the history of Windows. It enhances the user experience by its sheer simplicity and caters to their connected lives across work and play. We are delighted by the initial reviews from partners and the technology community.
Over 90% of testers from around the world have rated it as “good” or “extremely good” and consider Windows 7 to be responsive, simple to use and stable.

Windows 7 would be available in six editions: The two primary editions are: Windows 7 Home Premium for home consumers and Windows 7 Professional for small and medium sized businesses. Also available in the line-up are Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic (in Emerging Markets only), Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate.

Tested for over 600 new feature ideas provided for Windows 7, the OS were tested through global quantitative research early in the engineering process, helping Microsoft determine the features that best address consumers’ top needs. Interestingly, Windows 7 has undergone the largest beta testing program in the history of the industry, accounting for more than 8 million testers worldwide.

However those of you willing to purchase off-the-shelf packages of Windows 7 can hang onto your hat. With the new taxes on packaged software introduced in July,  importers of Windows 7 are facing disputes over custom clearance. This would delay the consignments of the imported packaged software.

Raju Bhatnagar, vice president for government relations at the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said that they have asked the government to issue instructions to vendors and the customs department to resolve the issue. As an option they can ask the vendors to print the value of the license on the packages.

Microsoft said they expect the issue to be resolved and hope the consignment of Windows 7 packages will be cleared soon.